Thread: CA:Activists demand Border Patrol records of raids

Activists demand Border Patrol records of raids

Steven Cuevas
February 05, 2009
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Day laborer groups briefly faced off with anti-illegal immigration activists outside the US Border Patrol headquarters in Riverside today. At issue is an alleged quota system imposed on agents to round up more illegal immigrants. KPCC's Steven Cuevas says immigration activists want the Border Patrol to hand over information about recent raids.

Steven Cuevas: Several agents with the Border Patrol's Riverside office say they've been given a quota to arrest at least 150 undocumented immigrants a month. Fall short, they say, and you're in trouble.

Immigration activist Emilio Amaya with the San Bernardino Community Service Center says that's led to racial profiling... and stepped-up raids of legal day labor sites.

Emilio Amaya: We have complaints from legal residents and U.S. citizens who were stopped and questioned just because of their ethnicity. We understand they have a job to do, but we also understand the fact that someone is Latino does not mean they are violating the law. So it increases racial profiling in our communities.

[Sound of chanting, and yelling back and forth]

Cuevas: Amaya and other activists want to know more about recent immigration arrests, so they tried to submit a Freedom of Information Act request at the Border Patrol offices. Outside, the activists ran into members of the Minuteman Project, a prominent anti-illegal immigration group.

Robin Hvidston: The Minuteman Project loves immigrants, just uphold our law.

Cuevas: Minuteman Project member Robin Hvidston.

Hvidston: If the day labor site was here illegally, they should not have been in our country, quota system or no. The issue here is about bigger things. The Mexican government, they need to change that government. And number two: Come to our country legally. We welcome, we love immigrants!

Cuevas: The Border Patrol insists it doesn't have an arrest quota. It's investigating allegations about racial profiling.

On Saturday, immigration activists will lead a "Stop the Raids" march from the steps of Riverside City Hall to the Border Patrol offices.
http://www.scpr.org/news/stories/2009/0 ... ml?refid=0

I am sooooooooo looking forward to that march.